Resilient Tropical Botany in a Changing Agriculture

Dear Colleagues,

[*] Background & history of this topic: Global food production has increased steadily since 1990, primarily due to world population growth. However, agro-biodiversity losses, climate change, and declining arable land threaten global food security. According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021 report, “one in four people globally, i.e., 1.9 billion are moderately or severely food insecure.” The second of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals is to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.” Achieving this goal by the target date of 2030 requires a focused change in the global food and agriculture system.

[*] Aim and scope of the special issue: Neglected and underutilized crop species (NUS) are nutritionally attractive food plants with climate resilience potential, and therefore with potential for the future. As part of global agro-biodiversity, they are domesticated plant species that have been used for centuries for their food and other purposes, but their utilization and importance have become marginalized over time. They are also known as orphan and forgotten crops. With the changing demand for plant and crop attributes, neglected and underutilized crops are well-adapted to diverse cropping systems under less-than-optimal conditions. Additional species for crop rotation systems will create sustainable production systems. Using new species in a crop rotation systems may shift the depletion of soil nutrients, disrupt existing disease cycles, and reduce the probability of pest attacks. Many NUS improve the resilience of agricultural production systems to climate change.

[*] Cutting-edge research: Promising neglected and underutilized crops are fundamental to improving dietary and production diversity. Neglected and underutilized species offer immense opportunities to fight poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, and their incorporation into farming systems could lead to nutrient-dense, climate-resilient, and sustainable agriculture.

[*] What kind of papers we are soliciting: Contributions should address the prevailing food insecurity, monotonous diets, and climate change events demanding crop and food diversification as well as the development of resilient and sustainable agriculture food systems. Despite constituting a small share of global food systems, NUS crops have the potential to contribute to the socioeconomic development of low-input/low-output farming systems.

Prof. Dr. Marten Sørensen
Guest Editor

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• neglected and underutilized crops
• resilience to climate change
• improving dietary and production diversity